AIR ATTACKS
ON CRETE & BENGHAZI ENEMY TRANSPORT BOMBED IN DESERT. AXIS PLANES CRIPPLED OVER MALTA. LONDON, April 30. In the Middle East the R.A.F. attacked targets in Crete on Tuesday night and the Axis supply base of Benghazi. On the same night enemy transport vehicles in the Western Desert were bombed. On land both sides had to contend yesterday with violent dust storms. Our light mobile forces drove off a small enemy column of tanks and armoured cars. Five more Axis planes were crippled in raids over Malta yesterday and two wei4? destroyed. Italian planes took' part in the raid, which was described as lighter than usual. AMERICAN FIGHTERS REPORTED IN MALTA. DEFENCES OF THE ISLAND STRENGTHENED. LONDON, April 29. A message from Stockholm says that sources in Berlin attribute a sudden stiffening of Malta’s defences to the arrival of American fighters. A German spokesman points out that this ties up with President Roosevelt’s declaration that Americans will fight anywhere in the world where the Axis forces can be found. The German reports do not specify how the American planes reached Malta, but they suggest that American warships, probably including an aircraft-carrier, have been responsible for their arrival. The Royal Air Force fighters defending Malta are a “David” force, which, is facing no ordinary opposition, but a Goliath whose sole object has been to neutralise the island by an onslaught such as has never before been known (states British Official Wireless). Frequently more than 100 bombers, with a large percentage of dive-bombers, attack the target area, which at the most is five miles by three, and our airmen are usually outnumbered by five or six to one. Yet so far in April, 37 enemy aircraft have been destroyed and 120 damaged, including 25 probably destroyed.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 May 1942, Page 3
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295AIR ATTACKS Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 May 1942, Page 3
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